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Aggnes
Aggnes, Baroness of Bury, first came to the attention of the Kingdoms in the summer of 1458 as the mother of Marya and inheritor of her property. (OOC note: same IG-character, new name, very different person) Early history Most of her early history is unknown to the general public even now, but a certain amount can be made out from hints dropped by herself and her daughter (and also the Witchfinder General) at various times. Aggnes was born into a poor family in a mining village on the borders of Wales. It was a hard life, and one that she hoped to escape from when a young nobleman fell for her red-haired beauty and wit, and offered to marry her. What she hadn't expected was that rather than her being elevated to his comparative life of luxury, he was disowned by his family, and joined her as a peasant labourer, only without the practical knowledge that the life required. They did stay together, and it seems likely that there was genuine love on both sides, but the whole experience left Aggnes embittered and cynical. They had three sons and one daughter - Marya. In 1455, one of Aggnes' dodgier trade deals had an unexpected result. She knew that the wood she had bough cheaply and sold to the mine as pit-props had been cheap for a reason - she had not expected the entire male population of the village, including her own husband and sons, to be in there when the mine collapsed. Aggnes and her daughter made their way to the nearby priory, where Aggnes rapidly took over the adminstration from the rather ineffectual Prioress (the additional education she had received from her husband had been put to good use). Marya, however, proved to be a problem (too honest, and too much of a tendency to sing, very badly). The problem was solved by sending her off to earn her own living in Liverpool, and Aggnes settled down to raking in the profits from the Priory. Active life In 1458, word came to the Priory that Marya had been killed, and that Aggnes was the inheritor of her property. Never one to pass up the chance of a freebie, Aggnes took the messenger's horse, and headed to Carlisle, making her way past the encircling armies, and finding only a County wagon, a few pence, and a beheaded body. Oddly enough, her anger if any seems to have been directed not at those who had killed her daughter, but at the Lancashire officials who had made her a general and sent her into combat: in Aggnes' opinion, Marya was far too soft to have stood any chance of survival. She spent some time in Carlisle, fishing, manipulating the market, and selling state points to whoever owned the castle that day, then eventually left, wagon and all, as a result of some sort of deal with Anto Capone that got her on the "friends" list of his armies. She headed gradually south, and eventually reached her daughter's former home in the city of Lancaster. Her life there was quiet, trading, teaching and selling state points. For some odd reason, she was nominated for the title of Baroness by the Duke of Lancashire at one point - something to do with her making every profit she could, and grabbing the highest-paid jobs whenever possible, accidentally being of benefit to the County as well as to herself? The description of her taking her oath may be worth reading. In the last few weeks of the town's existence, she became Mayor just in time to close it down and move with all the inhabitants to Liverpool. She rather enjoyed renaming the town tavern to the "Baroness of Burys Arms". Since then, she has been operating as a County trader, specialising in fodder and fish. In June of 1459, she went on a trade trip to Ireland aboard the "Serenity",captained by Malreynolds. She visited Holywell again later that year, though without setting sail herself - instead, she met an incoming trading vessel, and in her capacity as a Westmorland trader, established the county's Luxury Goods Emporium - the initail stocks amounted to around £10K of assorted wines, cheeses, and other goods. One thing she has not yet done is investigated her new property at Bury in any way, though she has capitalised on the prestige of the title. In the autumn of 1459, she took a trip, seemingly on impulse, to Worcester, capital of Mercia. She stayed there peacefully for a few weeks, studying at the university and providing state points for the county. All was calm, unti the day when she was spotted raising an army, almost at the same time as Worcester's Mayor cancelled her tolerance of the existing county shell army within the town walls, and the unusually high number of defenders there killed the army commander. Aggnes claims she was acting at the request of the Sheriff (also the Mayor), but whose side, if any, was she really on? Who was paying her? No-one knows, possibly not even Aggnes. Spring and early summer 1460 was a quiet period for Aggnes, who spent several months in contemplation in the Church. Christmas 1460, and Aggnes became Rector of Westmorland, taking over from Lark. Around Easter 1461, she became Viscountess of Crook, and and trying various means to lessen the impact of the possible alternative meaning of that word - she has never ben prosecuted, much less found guilty, and objects to the implication. The title comes with an estate: Hollin Hall , near Kendal. Known associates Aggnes runs a number of small business ventures, most of which are initially profitable, but then run into trouble. Her "headquarters" is'' the office/warehouse of the Roadside Goods Emporium (located in a field marked "site of proposed mansion")' ''where Fred, Bill, and Charlie are employed. They operate a wagon labelled "Hott Fud and Ale" which sells very dodgy bacon butties and soup whose ingredients are unknown'''. '''Road-side sales are their speciality, hence the name - a captive audience is easier to sell to. Should a caravan accidentally break a wheel on an unexpected rock, the "New Knights of the Road" and their trademark green flag will be there to sell and fit a new wheel, sell dodgy food and even dodgier souvenirs, and hide the offending pile of rocks.We now know that Fred: "... looked the typical market salesman - needed a wash, eyes a little close together, and an eye for a purse." Her latest idea, possibly in use on Liverpool market and involving Bill getting the local child thieves organised, is probably the first to be definitely illegal. At the army camp outside Worceter, Charlie has met and been smitten with Oriames, the recently-deceased TM of Mercia, feeding her the soup from the Hott Fud wagon - "chicken soup was only so-called because it was intended to be fed to chickens, not because it contained any" - it did in fact contain assorted bits of pig offal, including brains. Oria has been acting very strangely since her death, and her complexion is not so much pale (as Charlie thinks) as green. Charlie will be staying in Mercia to act as the R.G.E.'s agent there and supervise the county-licenced franchises being set up.